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China is cracking down on the rapidly evolving AI industry by tightening its regulatory oversight. Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent announced to disable the customizable persona features in AI. This move has been made to comply with Beijing’s new rules on anthropomorphic AI, which are set to take effect on July 15.
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While ByteDance’s Doubao and Alibaba’s Qwen chatbot will disable the persona features from July 15, Tencent said it already removed a similar feature last week. These features allowed users to shape personas using language prompts. Additionally, they could also alter the identity, tone, expertise, and conversational style. These AI chatbots could create customised characters, including personal assistants and virtual romantic companions.
These personal chatbots have resulted in ‘AI psychosis,’ a non-clinical term used to broadly describe the experiences of users losing touch with reality. While AI companionship existed in a regulatory gray area, the sector has come under renewed scrutiny because of how easily such services can veer into explicit content.
The rules prohibit providers from offering virtual intimate relationships, such as virtual companionship, to minors. It is also required to obtain parental or guardian consent before offering anthropomorphic AI services to children under the age of 14, set to take effect on July 15.
More than 3,500 noncompliant AI products, including mini-programmes and related products, have been removed, according to the CAC. The next phase of China’s regulatory crackdown is expected to address the growing menace of AI-generated misinformation and obscene content.
